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An insider's guide to the top places to stay near Central Park, including the best for panoramic park views, trendy cocktail bars and buzzing restaurants, in locations near Midtown, Fifth Avenue, Museum Mile, Madison Avenue, Carnegie Hall and Broadway.

For easy access to the big-ticket sights in the city, The Whitby’s location in Upper Midtown is difficult to beat. It's a mere two blocks south of Central Park and two blocks north of the Museum of Modern Art, and also six blocks from The Rockefeller Centre, with the theatres of Broadway just beyond. Inside, it's a riot of rich, tactile fabrics, elaborately-printed wallpapers, crockery hung like portraits, giant murals and sculptures as to be deemed a gallery in its own right.

An oasis in the heart of bustling midtown. The hotel is one block away from Central Park on East 58th Street and the Avenue of the Americas. This is a fantastic location for visiting the park and reaching anywhere in Manhattan. The interior feels like an enchanted forest. Ivy grows up the outside of the building and on the inside 24,000 plants dangle from the lobby ceiling, climb up the walls and surprise you in the shower. There's free valet parking for electric vehicles and bikes and this is a dog friendly hotel – with all the amenities you might require and even a doggy concierge offers local doggy tips.

Set on floors 35 to 54 of the north tower of the Time Warner Center, with spectacular views of Central Park below, this is the ultimate in modern New York luxury. Décor-wise, Asian accents merge with retro elements. City View rooms looking out on the Manhattan skyline from the 38th and 39th floors come with Asian cherry wood furnishings, marble bathrooms, Fili D’Oro linens and floor-to-ceiling windows. Still, we prefer the Central Park View rooms done in subtle beige and cream tones, Asian art on the walls, and views of the sunrise over the park from the king-sized bed when you wake up.

Tucked away on a leafy street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, between Park and Madison Avenues, The Lowell is a peaceful oasis just one block from the edge of Central Park, close to both the Zoo and The Pond. From the marble-floored foyer, with its smart, navy-clad staff and abundance of fresh flowers, to the lounge-style Club Room, filled with art, sculptures and books, there’s a restrained, old-world glamour to The Lowell, more reminiscent of Paris than New York. The genteel Pembroke Room, with its white tablecloths and flickering lamps, serves an afternoon tea that has become a New York institution.

Built in 1930, this beloved 41-storey Art Deco hotel overlooking Central Park (at Fifth and 61st) is the ultimate in understated luxury. It was the first hotel to offer radios and televisions in its guest rooms, in 1950. Elegant interiors reflect a sense of quiet luxury, paying homage to the vibrant history of the hotel. The marble-floor, checkerboard lobby is redolent of old-world grace, while the sumptuous gold, black-and-olive-green tones and textures of designer Alexandra Champalimaud’s Two E Bar and Lounge off the lobby are sleek and modish without being trendy. Those vintage wood-panelled lifts with white-gloved operators complete the timeless picture.

This Art Deco icon, its name sentinel on the rooftop, dominates Central Park South. Dating back to 1931, its architectural stylings — ornate gilded doors, rich wood panelling, that vintage rooftop sign — recall the glorious era, while all the modern interiors and cutting-edge technology associated with Marriott (who assumed management in 2012) bring it up to date. What it may lack in the glitz and glamour of other nearby addresses, it makes up for in excellent service and spectacular views. The dramatic setting is matched by a beautifully understated lobby of marble floors and dark wood panelling inlaid with photographs of Central Park scenes that add colour.

Set over 33 floors of an historic 19th-century building, it’s like stepping back in time at this elegant 259-room oasis: the horse carriages, doormen and the pink marble-lined lobby with antique furnishings is fit for royalty. On the south side of Central Park — the quiet end of Midtown — Manhattan’s great green garden is pretty much your front lawn. Horse carriages out front can take you through the Park, but you’re also only a walk away from Fifth Avenue department stores, Carnegie Hall, Time Warner Center and all of Broadway. I loved the new in-room signature scent, Central Park, created exclusively for the hotel by L'arganique Beauté.

Imperiously situated on Grand Army Plaza at the south-east corner of Central Park and Fifth Avenue, this is prime Manhattan real estate. You not only have the park as your playground but you’re a walk away from all the Midtown action, as well as Museum Mile and Madison Avenue boutiques. There are no less than 282 rooms in 14 styles ranging from Signatures and Deluxes to sprawling Legacy Suites named for New Yorkers such as Vanderbilt and Carnegie. The suites (102 of them) are vast as Upper East Side townhouses, with separate living areas and even butler’s pantries. Opt for a Central Park view.

On the corner of Fifth and 59th at the entrance to Central Park, and steps away from both Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue shopping, the location simply can’t be beaten. The Sherry-Netherland was built in 1927 as the tallest residential hotel in New York, but in 1954 it became a cooperative building. Which means all the hotel rooms and suites are individually owned, some by famous influencers — the better for snooping through the medicine cabinets — and decorated to the owner’s personal style, giving the whole place a lived-in, homely feel. The lobby is the real dazzler, with properly dressed doormen and a frescoed ceiling that is straight out of a Henry James novel.

On a tree-lined block at Madison and 77th, one block from Central Park and within Museum Mile. You can enjoy the ultimate picnic in the park with a ‘lunch-to-go’ created by celeb chef Jean-Georges Vongerichte, who heads up the French-American Mark Restaurant & Bar, a happening spot drawing tycoons, Park Avenue heiresses and staff from nearby galleries and auction houses. French designer Jacques Grange’s bold geometric shapes and splashy interiors helped reinvent this once-stuffy classic. From the marble-floored lobby with its narrow black and white floor stripes, to the curvy pink-lit bar, it’s like stepping into a Tim Burton film.